Survey: ‘Blue Bloods’ Most Commercial Of This Season's New Series

It might not be the sexiest of this year’s new U.S. shows, but Blood Bloods has proved the most commercial at home and internationally combined. The Tom Selleck cop show has topped a chart of how this season’s freshman shows have performed. Blue Bloodshas sold around the world, and not just to tiny channels but to big ones like Sky Atlantic in the UK, Australia’s Network Ten and Discovery Latin America. Armando Nunez, president CBS Studios International, has told TV trade Television Business International, “It’s perhaps not as sexy to talk about, but it has proven a success both on the network and in terms of global distribution.” TBI is due to publish its survey of U.S. network pick-ups Monday. Indeed, CBS’ strategy of showing procedurals might hug the shore creatively, but it has paid off globally. Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, another CBS procedural, is in second place. Says Nunez, “The road is littered with pilots and broken series and high concepts that didn’t work. We are in broadcasting.”

The Event, NBC Universal’s mystery sci-fi show, would probably have been cancelled by now has it not sold so strongly around the world, TBI deputy editor Peter White tells me. NBC Universal sold The Event to more than 200 territories early on, and it has gone on to have a full U.S. season. Of course, some of this year’s new shows still haven’t aired yet, including Fox’s Terra Nova, due to air in October, and ABC’s Happy Endings. Shows graded “F” for fail in the survey because they have all been canceled include JJ Abrams’ Undercovers, Lonestar starring Jon Voight, and the Jimmy Smits legal drama Outlaw. And the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced Chase and NBC’s superhero drama The Cape have both bitten the dust even in the short time since TBI compiled the survey.